Poll: Economic Gloom Starts to Lift

Americans are slightly more confident in the future of the American economy, according to a new WSJ/NBC News poll. Could this help the president? WSJ’s Aaron Zitner explains. Photo:AP

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

... for a long time ... Americans are still lousy about the economy ... that feeling has remained durable ... even though the stock market has been climbing to new highs ... and unemployment has been falling ... now ... in the new Wall Street Journal NBC News poll there are some glimmers of optimism and if they remain over time ... that would mark a pretty big change in attitudes from the recent past ... in our new survey ... thirty one percent say that in the next year ... they expect the economy get better ... now thirty one percent is a pretty tepid number but that's the best showing of optimism ... since about May two thousand thirteen ... and only seventeen percent of people in our survey ... said they thought the economy would get worse ... in the coming year ... that's a low mark for pessimism ... in about the last ... two years ... this comes in tandem with another finding in the poll about gas prices which have been falling ... and that's had the effect on people ... about half of the people in our survey ... said that falling gas prices have had a meaningful impact ... on them and their families ... beyond the pull all this comes at a time when we see consumer confidence rising and other signs of economic growth with the big question hanging out there ... about whether wages will start to rise along with the tightening job market ... now we know one ovary the findings in our poll but ... they do show some glimmers of optimism ... even President Obama who's been stuck with fairly low job approval numbers found one aspect of his presidency ... on getting more positive use this time ... and that was his handling of the economy which improved marginally over prior months ...